8 Games Like Balatro for Roguelike Card Game Fans
Looking for games like Balatro? Eight roguelike deckbuilders that scratch the same itch, from Slay the Spire to a free mahjong roguelike in the browser.
If you are searching for games like Balatro, you probably already know what hooked you: a simple scoring rule, a handful of modifiers that bend it, and the moment late in a run when the numbers stop being reasonable. Balatro takes poker hands, scores them as chips times mult and lets jokers rewrite the maths. The games below do not copy that formula, but each one shares a piece of its appeal, whether that is building an engine one card at a time, reading probability under pressure, or watching small synergies compound into something absurd.
What makes a good game like Balatro
Before the list, it helps to name the ingredients. Most Balatro fans respond to three things:
- Short, replayable runs. Every run starts from nothing, so a bad start costs minutes, not hours.
- Engine building. The fun is less about any single card than about how pieces combine.
- Readable randomness. You know the odds well enough to plan, and the game rewards you for playing them.
Every entry below hits at least two of these.
8 games like Balatro worth playing
1. Slay the Spire
The game that defined the modern roguelike deckbuilder. You climb a branching map, fight turn-based battles with a deck of attack, skill and power cards, and add or remove cards after each fight. Relics provide run-long passive effects that work a lot like jokers. If you enjoyed deciding which joker to keep and which to sell, you will enjoy deciding which card to skip, because in Slay the Spire a lean deck is often a strong one.
2. Luck be a Landlord
A slot machine roguelike. Each spin pays out coins based on which symbols land and how they sit next to each other, and after every spin you choose a new symbol to add to your machine. Rent comes due at set intervals and keeps climbing, so you are always racing a target score, exactly like a Balatro blind. It is the closest match on this list for players who love adjacency combos and exponential payouts.
3. Inscryption
Inscryption starts as a dark card game played across a table from a mysterious figure in a cabin, where creatures cost blood and must be sacrificed to summon stronger ones. The deckbuilding is tight and clever, and the game keeps changing what it is as you play. Balatro fans who like discovering how a ruleset can be broken will find plenty to chew on, though it leans more on story and puzzles than on endless replay.
4. Monster Train
A deckbuilder in which you defend a train with several floors from waves of invaders climbing toward the Pyre at the top. You pick a primary clan and an allied clan, and the combination decides which units and spells you see. The scaling is the draw here: by the final battle, a well-built run turns single units into enormous threats, which is the same late-run spike that makes a Balatro build feel earned.
5. Dicey Dungeons
You roll dice each turn and slot them into equipment cards, each with its own rules about which numbers it accepts. Each character plays very differently, and each episode adds a new rule twist on top. It suits players who enjoyed the probability side of Balatro: planning around what you might roll, then improvising when the dice disagree.
6. Outlaw Mahjong
Outlaw Mahjong swaps playing cards for the 108 number tiles of Chinese mahjong: Characters, Dots and Bamboo, one to nine, four copies of each. You play one to six tiles at a time, the best pattern scores chips times mult, and heroes from the Water Margin sit on a five-slot flower rack where their left-to-right order changes the result. Because there are only four copies of each tile and three suits, the hand ladder is built from mahjong melds (chows and pungs) and pairs, running from High Tile through Pair, Meld and Two Melds up to Kong, and there is no plain flush: playing Two Pairs, Meld + Pair, Three Pairs or Two Melds all in one suit makes it Pure, for +4 mult. If you have seen "balatro free" or "balatro online" searches and wanted something in that space to play right now, this one runs free in the browser. The how to play page covers the rules in a few minutes.
7. Peglin
Peglin mixes a roguelike map with pachinko. Your "deck" is a set of orbs, and each turn you fire one into a board of pegs, dealing damage based on how many you hit. Relics change how orbs bounce, split or score. It is a lighter, more physical take on the same idea Balatro uses: a simple action, multiplied by modifiers you picked up along the way.
8. Cobalt Core
A spaceship deckbuilder in which positioning matters as much as damage. Your ship can shift left and right to dodge incoming fire and line up its cannons, and your crew members each add their own cards to the deck. Fans of Balatro's joker ordering will appreciate how much of Cobalt Core is about doing things in the right sequence within a single turn.
How to pick your next game like Balatro
If the scoring maths was your favourite part, start with Luck be a Landlord or Outlaw Mahjong, both of which are built around a target score and multiplicative payoffs. If you want deeper tactical combat, Slay the Spire and Monster Train are the obvious next steps. If you want something that surprises you, try Inscryption. And if you just want a quick run over lunch, Peglin and Dicey Dungeons are easy to pick up and hard to put down.
Whatever you choose, the common thread is the same: small decisions, compounding effects, and one more run.
Balatro is a trademark of its respective owner. Outlaw Mahjong is an independent game and is not affiliated with or endorsed by it.